[cert PG, 117 mins]
Stanley Yelnats’ family has a history of bad luck, so
he isn’t too surprised when a miscarriage of justice
sends him to a boys’ juvenile detention centre,
Camp Green Lake. There is no lake – it has been dry
for over a hundred years – it’s hardly a camp. As
punishment, the boys must each dig a hole a day,
five feet deep, five feet across, in the hard earth of
the dried-up lake bed. The warden claimes that this
pointless labour builds character but she is really
using the boys to dig for loot buried by the Wild
West outlaw Kissin’ Kate Barlow. The story of Kissin’
Kate and of a curse put on Stanley’s great-great-
grandfather by a one-legged Gypsy weaves a
narrative puzzle that tangles and untangles until it
becomes clear that the hand of fate has been at
work in the lives of the characters and their
forebears for generations.
Director:Andrew Davis
Starring:Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Henry Winkler
Level:KS3
Subjects:English, Literacy
